Good Girls Don't

As frothy as a milkshake but not nearly as satisfying, St. John's debut romance, set in contemporary Atlanta, pairs three beautiful women with three gorgeous, sensitive and well-endowed men. The book gets off to a promising start, depicting an amusing conversation between Colette Campbell and her sister, sex-toy designer Amy, about (what else?) sex toys. But with so many relationships, there's room for little more than character sketches: the good guy who still loves his high school squeeze and vows to be a little bad to win her heart; the wild girl turned businesswoman who rediscovers her naughty side with said good guy; the woman who just needs the right man to make her rethink her sex-toys-are-a-girl's-only-friend motto. Everyone is earnest and looking for love, and none has too much emotional baggage to impede their perfect unions. It's no wonder that St. John's attempts at penning racy, gossipy exchanges à la Sex and the City so often fall flat. While her book contains steamy sex scenes aplenty, it lacks the multidimensional characters and conflicts that made the HBO series so popular. Agent, Caren Johnson. (Dec.)